Tagged With homeownership

Buying a home is often a long process that starts with looking at your options and deciding which ones are worth visiting, and eventually which one is worth making an offer on. What questions did you ask during your house hunt?

One big lesson we learned from the housing crisis: Don't buy more home than you can afford. There are a handful of rules for figuring out what that amount is, but this one considers the additional costs, beyond home price. With this rule, all of your housing-related expenses should be no more than 25 per cent of your gross income.

Predicting the future is near impossible -- but that doesn‘t stop us all from having a red hot go. Human beings have been predicting the future since the beginning of history and the results range from the hilarious to the downright uncanny.

One thing all future predictions have in common: they‘re rooted in our current understanding of how the world works. It‘s difficult to escape that mindset. We have no idea how technology will evolve, so our ideas are connected to the technology of today.

The cost of owning a home goes well beyond the price you paid for the house itself. When something breaks, you have to fix it, and those repairs can be costly. You can't foresee or avoid every home repair, but some regular maintenance can save you hundreds -- maybe thousands -- on some of these big ones.

Older homes have character, often boasting features like architectural windows and solid plaster walls that you don't find in many newer buildings. When it's time to renovate, though, older houses present costly challenges that aren't so charming. Here are the biggest and most common renovation issues you should prepare for.

Most houses don't come cheap, so if you're looking to buy, you want to be smart. And typically, the longer you plan on owning the home, the better. Personal finance blog MoneyNing explains why, suggesting the "five-year rule" in the process.

From picking an agent to scheduling inspections to closing on your loan, the homebuying process can be a complicated one. There are many steps along the way, and a lot can go wrong in that time. If you've been there, we want to hear from you.